Chimps use their skill at pilfering fruit from farmers to impress potential mates, a study shows. An international team claims to have documented the only recorded example of regular sharing of plant foods by unrelated chimps (study, press release, videos of the thieving chimps). One particular female, presumably with a very bad reputation, was given most of the attention. “The adult male who shared most with this female engaged in more consortships* with her and received more grooming from her than the other adult males, even the alpha male. … Such daring behaviour may be considered an attractive trait,” says study author Kimberley Hockings of the University of Stirling (Reuters).

Meat is known to be used as a social tool, according to Hockings and colleagues, however chimps observed in the Republic of Guinea rarely shared wild plant food. They did however share cultivated fruit – this accounted for 58 of 59 observed food sharing events. There may be implications for non-chimps too. “It has been proposed that men in hunter-gatherer societies acquire large and risky-to-obtain food packages for social strategising and to garner attention,” Hockings says (BBC).

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m seeing my girlfriend tonight so I’m off to shoplift a papaya.

*Consortships: where an adult female and an adult male chimpanzee move to the periphery of their community so that the male gains exclusive mating access (press release).

Image: Getty